Wireless electricity
 

Finally! The article does a good job of making the concept clear.

I loved the end of the article, too -

I think I was just watching something about this on TV not too long ago... now I'm just trying to remember where it was I caught it.

Pretty cool. Three comments/questions.

1) How can you talk about wireless electricity without even a shout out to Tesla. That man was a kook in his later years but he had big ideas.

Then two comments on this paragraph:

1. If you've been intrigued by those "magnetic healing bracelets" sold via infomercial. Keep in mind that bold paragraph.

2. While biological entities don't interact strongly with magnetic fields, electrical and other magnetic systems do. I know it is maxed on certain frequencies but what kind of re-engineering (if any) of all the other electrical/magnetic things in our homes would be required?

Im thinking the re-engineering would be pretty substantial considering what particular items are sensitive to EM fields and what appliances actually make up our day to day life nowadays. computers, cell's, pace makers...etc.


btw, I think this was mentioned in the RocketBoom link GD posted yesterday...(which I found totally entertaining, btw)

Perhaps. But at the same time, those are pretty well understood factors so I'd imagine any attempt to productize this concept would try to take that into account. Afterall, one could have said the same thing about cell phones, and yet the technology does a pretty good job of being functional without interfering with prior existing technology (except computer speakers, cell phones freak those the heck out).

But cell phones operate at a much higher frequency than standard electronics.

I've no doubt they're surmountable, I'd just be interested in seeing a discussion of it and an explanation if it isn't a problem.

What about the interaction of birds with magnetic fields? Also, I've heard one theory about declining bee populations being potentially linked to increased EMFs from cell phone towers.

The EMF vs. bees thing has been pretty thoroughly debunked. Don't have time to find it but a study that had nothing to do with bees and EMF was misinterpreted by a journalist who wrote a short story which was then picked up and thoroughly distorted by the mainstream press.

ETA: Remembered where I read it.

At least for initial applications, I've been hearing it in terms of short-range stuff. Some sort of transmitter with a range of a few feet for charging devices or powering a lamp. That much shouldn't be of particular consequences to birds.